In today’s digital world, writing by hand is a modern-day luxury. You only need to take one look at the work of Sabina Savage to understand the importance of ‘by-hand’ to her and her brand. Each of Sabina’s intricate illustrations is painstakingly hand-rendered, taking weeks or months to complete. Once printed onto fabric, her scarves are hand-edged, and her ornate placement-print clothing is all meticulously hand-constructed in her London atelier. Rarely has a modern brand been so reliant on the manual art of undertaking tasks by-hand.
Produced by Royal Court Jewellers Cleave, The Artist’s Pen is strikingly decorated in a fresh and elegant palette. It features an adaptation of Sabina’s celebrated design, The Royal Striped Horses, inspired by the Royal Menagerie housed at The Tower of London from 1200 to the early 1800’s. The illustration depicts a majestic zebra fleeing the tower, taking with her several pieces of the British crown jewels.
In order to adapt the design for enamel work, Sabina studied the enamelling process in detail to understand the heritage craft. With the expertise and guidance of the Cleave master craftsmen, she traced her original pencil illustration by hand and fitted it to seamlessly surround the pen. The crowned zebra gracefully leaps the full length of the design and turns effortlessly into alignment when the pen is closed. She wears the crown of Margaret of York, and carries the golden Coronation Spoon, alongside a blue flower which spirals falling petals around the body of the pen. At the head and base of the pen read the words ‘Striped Horses’ – an allusion to the unfamiliarity of such foreign beasts in the Modern Era.
This adapted design was then carefully brought to life in the workshop. To add depth and iridescence, the background of the design is guilloché (precisely engraved with a repeating pattern) and hand-filled with a translucent enamel. Opaque enamel is then manually applied to the features of the design, allowing the intricate details to gain prominence. The Artist’s Pen is keeping the by-hand tradition alive, both in production and in product.
The five pens will be available to purchase exclusively from Sabina Savage for £4250, and will be accompanied by a gift box, leather presentation case and a leather pen sleeve.
